I Wish I May
by DragonDancer5150
Summary: A clear night brings a pleasant time with friends . . . and thoughts of home.  G1 cartoon continuity. COMPLETE


Author's Note – For "tf_speedwriting" on LJ. This time, the prompt was an image. It can be viewed here: community. livejournal tf_speedwriting / 282821. html (remove the spaces, of course)

Disclaimer – "Transformers" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Hasbro, Takara, and any other related owners/distributors/producers. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.

"I Wish I May"  
by DragonDancer5150

The last several nights had been thickly overcast and too cold, even for being as close to the desert as they were, but tonight was clear and beautiful, cool but not so much that the humans needed more than jackets to be comfortable. Sparkplug had introduced Hound and Beachcomber to astronomy and Greek mythology some days prior, and the two had arranged a gathering of any off-duty Autobots who wanted to sit under the stars and hear the stories as Hound used his holo-projection capabilities to help point out the constellations that could be seen in the sky and construct the ones that couldn't. Spike had insisted on building a campfire for all of them to sit around; it was tradition, apparently.

Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Grapple, Hound, Huffer, Sparkplug, and Spike listened to Beachcomber's smooth voice with rapt attention as the geologist read from a datapad.

". . . attempted to gain possession of the maiden by violence. Her father, incensed at this conduct, having made Orion drunk, deprived him of his sight and cast him out on the seashore. The blinded hero followed the sound of a Cyclops' hammer till he reached Lemnos, and came to the forge of Vulcan, who, taking pity on him, gave him Kedalion, one of his men, to be his guide to the abode of the sun. Placing Kedalion on his shoulders, Orion proceeded to the east, and there meeting the sun-god, was restored to sight by his beam."

Grapple laughed and, in a fit of ornery silliness, picked up Cliffjumper. "Hey, CJ! Be my Kedalion, will you, my friend?"

"Whoa! H-hey!" The protest was ruined by the warrior's own laughter as he was settled on the larger mech's shoulder.

Sparkplug chuckled and shook his head. "You'd be a little better in the part of Vulcan than Orion, Grapple. Supposedly, he was a master craftsman, like you."

"Oh? Was he an architect?"

"Um . . . well, no, actually, he was a blacksmith."

"A black what?"

"Guys, look!" Bumblebee's sudden outburst would have had the gathering on its collective feet with weapons drawn, looking for incoming Decepticons, if not for the positive note in his voice. Still, all gazes snapped starward in initial alarm.

A point of bright blue-white streaking across the sky captured everyone's attention instantly.

"Cool!" Spike cried. "A shooting star!"

"A shooting _what_?" Late to the gathering, Ironhide came through the trees with his pistol in hand.

Hound jumped to his feet, reaching to catch the security director's arm. "It's okay, Ironhide. It's nothing. We're fine."

Spike snickered. "Shooting _star_, Ironhide! You know . . . a meteorite that burns up in the atmosphere?" He looked in confusion at everyone. "You've never seen that back on Cybertron? I _know _Cybertron's got an atmosphere. Chip didn't wind up needing the breathing apparatus he took with you guys when you went to get the cosmitron for Optimus that one time."

"Oh, we get them," Beachcomber assured him. "We call them whitefire streamers."

"Semantics." Sparkplug sounded amused.

"Oh." Spike nodded. "Do you guys have any particular beliefs or traditions around them? We say that when you see one, make a wish and it'll come true."

Grapple's optics flashed softly. "Really? Does it?"

Spike grinned. "Sometimes!"

"Grapple," Cliffjumper muttered in a wry tone. "You can put me down now."

"Wha-oh . . . haha, sorry."

"Make a wish and it'll come true, huh?" Huffer said quietly, speaking up for the first time as he stood gazing upward.

Everyone fell silent at that, joining him in his stargazing. No one had to ask what his wish was. It was shared by every spark, and heart, that was present.

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x

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AN: The excerpt for Orion's story was pulled from here: comfychair (tilde)cmbell / myth / orion. html (remove spaces, the parentheses, and replace the word "tilde" with the symbol [single horizontal wavy line found on the key to the right of the number 1 key])


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